Say You Believe Me
by perfect-lights
Summary: Paige had never been more certain about anything before in her life, and as she tries to convince her sisters, things only get worse. What happens when the truth is out? Will it be too late?
1. Chapter 1

Heya, first time posting here at this site for all those loyal Charmed fans to enjoy. Wait, I'm not that loyal since I royally hate season 8. It sucks and it's not the show I fell in love with.

Moving on, some notes about this fic. It is set in a time period between the Fifth Halliwell and Saving Private Leo. For all you young readers out there, mainly speaking to the minors and anyone who may be squimish or offended by graphic material - this fic will get a bit dark. It will be very angsty because angst is my friend.

So for now, the story will be rather light, but it may get intense later on, so the rating may change.

Ok, so read on and tell me what you think.

**Chapter 1**

_The sheer heat of the flaming ball of licking fire touched her skin. Briefly, she imagined herself blazing out, dying and burning into a pile off grey human ash that her sisters would find when they got back. Terror consumed her. But the fireball never hit her. _

_It never did. _

_One more came and it hit the wall behind her. And then another and another. Each time growing fast and hotter. _

_Her mouth opened slightly and she let a scream, just loud enough for herself to hear over the manic chuckling of the man – the demon – that stood in front of her. She knew what he was. And she professed it out loud for him to hear with more conviction than she thought she had. _

"_Do you really think your sisters would have left you alone with me if was evil?"_

_And through the void of soullessness that was his green eyes, glistening with an inner turmoil of a man's soul trying to fight out, she saw a flame as merciless and evil as the pits of hell burst forth. _

"_Do you really think Phoebe would have married me if I was a demon?" His voice so sinister and icy, it scraped her mind._

_It was then that she knew the truth. _

_Cole Turner was a demon._

Paige felt the heaviness leave her eyes as they fluttered open. Cold air pressed down on her chest, and she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. For a moment, she just stared up at the black. It was comforting, but only for a while, because in the dark Paige knew unknown evils lurked there.

Turning her head, she glanced at the clock beside her bed. The red digits glowed brightly a time that was all too familiar lately – 3AM. The silence of the manor dawned on her. There wasn't a single audibly detectable noise. No crickets chirped, no cars were heard in the distance, not a single moan escaped a settling red old manor. And in that silence, Paige couldn't hear a single breath of her sister or brother-in-law. A throng of fear wrapped around her heart as it leapt a beat with the fear of losing the ones she loved.

Paige sat up, needing to make clear that she was not alone, that her family was here with her and she slipped on her slippers and padded slowly toward the door. Her slender hand wrapped around the knob and she twisted it and pulled the wooden door open, not expecting to see a face staring back at her.

A tiny scream left her mouth and she felt the tingling sensation of orbing out and disappearing into another plane.

"Paige!" The panicked voice of an older sister called out to her and Paige rematerialized, looking slightly frazzled with a hand on her chest to stop the racing of her heart.

"Piper. Jeez, you scared me."

Piper allowed a breath of relief and smiled lightly.

"Sorry. But I thought I'd come check on you. You were tossing pretty loudly."

The youngest allowed the oldest to guide her to the bed and they both sat down, and Paige fumbled to turn on the lamp. Explosive orange light hit their retinas, and Paige winced, replying.

"Yeah. Sorry if I woke you up." She looked down, suddenly feeling embarrassed.

"Don't be," Piper stated firmly yet gently as she wrapped an arm around her sister's frame.

Paige allowed a tiny smile to pull at her lips as she gazed down, finding herself enjoying the comfort of having Piper bond with her, concern over her. It was really touching and it warmed Paige's heart up.

But there was one thing that was bothering her, and she knew that from the frown on Piper's face, that she couldn't hide it any longer.

"Paige? What's wrong?"

Could she tell Piper what had been playing at her nightmares every night? The agony that gained at her, growing stronger to the point that Paige thought she was going to go nuts in a pungent pool of confusion. A stint of courage came early and Paige opened her mouth.

"Uh-"

She saw Piper's brow deepen and her sister lowered her head in a bit closer as if to read into her eyes. Paige turned her eyes away.

"It's…" Paige paused and decided to look back into Piper's eyes; so warm and loving it made her feel safe just looking into them. She knew Piper would protect her with her own life. And it was in these eyes that Paige felt her audacity growing.

She began to explain it all to Piper, shifting her hands between the sheets of her bed and edging closer to the side of the bed. Piper's eyes never left her and Paige felt the relief when she finally finished explaining.

"Cole's evil, Piper. I know it."

Timidly, Paige glanced up at Piper to see what emotions were in her sister's eyes. She prayed she'd find acknowledgment and trust.

"Paige- I… I don't know what to say except that we've been through this before…" Piper's voice seemed like gravel on a dry road as if she hadn't been swallowing the entire time. And Paige felt her soul drop from the disbelief and skepticism in her voice.

The youngest Charmed One bowed her head down, almost like a child begging for help, for an escape from the demons that tortured her mind and spirit. She needed Piper's support like the air she breathed as she whispered brokenly.

"Say you believe me."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Darkness, never-ending darkness wrapped around her mind like a blanket of gloom. The black seemed to seep into the crevices of her soul, filing and examining every thought. This disturbed her.

Paige allowed the light to enter her eyelids and she slid away from the black abyss. She was slowly gaining her composure when a movement from her side frightened her more than usual.

"Piper?"

Piper had sat on the bed, and even though she had done it gently she had still awoken the whitelighter-witch. The eldest set her cup of coffee down on the bedside and turned a curious and concerned eye to her youngest sister.

Paige instinctively shrunk down into her blanket a little. She could feel Piper's gaze on her, waiting for her to begin speaking.

"I'm going to P3 today." She heard Piper say matter-of-factly. Paige nodded. Piper hesitated. "If you want… you can drop by for lunch?"

Paige nodded again softly. She glanced briefly at Piper and replied, "Ok."

"… Ok, bye." Piper let a tiny reassuring smile rest upon her face before she stood up. Once at the door, Piper turned around one last time to look at her sister, who had tossed to the side so her back faced Piper and the blanket was pulled over her head.

Piper sighed and reluctantly left, shutting the door behind her.

* * *

"Excellent."

A male voice commented brightly, his white teeth glistening cleanly, his suit perfectly ironed and clean-shaven face etched with mischief and achievement. He let his hands come together in a binding hold marked with the trademarks of superiority.

_Bing._

His green eyes looked out across the lounge room at the elevator and he spoke without making eye contact with anyone except the elevator door.

"This meeting's adjourned."

Several shimmers in the air and they were gone, and Cole walked toward his wife who had just exited the elevator with her eyes down as her hand straddled the strap of her handbag.

"Hi, honey. How was work?"

Phoebe felt herself look up, her facial expression changing to one of happiness and she smiled and reached up.

"Fine."

He bent down and hugged his wife's small frame tightly.

"I made dinner." Cole informed. He waited for Phoebe to answer back, say something sweet to him; something that would melt his heart that he thought was black as coal and hard as ice. But she didn't say anything this time, and instead kissed him and it did more than melt his heart. It stirred up his humanity and he felt _Cole_ in him, luring back the good into his heart.

The moment lingered on their lips, tingling and stomach churning. Time never dulled their love; in fact it only made it more exciting. He let _Cole's _humanity enjoy it to. It was one of the times where he didn't fight back or scream in his head.

They parted breathlessly, and Phoebe let the words float out.

"I love you."

A glimmer of the Source flashed in those emerald clear eyes, but it extinguished instantly by something much more powerful, and Cole allowed his strong arms to wrap around Phoebe. His heart was racing and his blood was flowing fast as he replied back.

"I love you too."

* * *

Candles scattered about her single lone form that sat on the attic floor, cross-legged and scribbling furiously on a notepad perched upon her knee. A stray piece of her dark hair fell across her face, obscuring her vision and she briskly swiped it away and ignored the knot of pain was forming in her back and the soreness of her right hand from all the writing she'd been doing.

She could hear the orbs coming, getting closer as they went through the solid roof of the attic. Still keeping her head down, Paige said with a sigh.

"Piper's at P3, Leo."

"I'm not looking for Piper."

She shook her head a little and the incessant stray hair fell loose again and this time she chose to leave it where it was. Paige decided to finally bring her head up, and at seeing the morose-like expression on his face, sagged her shoulders.

"Let me guess, Piper told you about my little confession last night?" She asked with a breath of frustration. "You know, I don't need you telling me I'm crazy too, so you can go."

Leo shook his head, a frown suddenly stretching across his face at feeling the sorrow coming from his charge. He could see how she was hiding it: busying herself with work, the sarcastic front she put up. He felt his own worthlessness as a whitelighter.

"No, she didn't tell me." He said evenly as he chose a spot on one of the attic couches that had been placed next to the potions table that Paige was working on. Sitting down, Leo leaned forward a little, his fingers interlocking evenly. "But _you _should have."

Paige honestly could only scoff. When she asked for the support it never came. She hastily grabbed a random herb and threw it into the pot to look busier than she really was. The smoke from the potion settled and Paige took a chance to look at her brother-in-law's worried stricken face.

She sighed. "Look, Leo. I know what you're doing and I appreciate it… I really do."

"But what? What is the problem?"

Paige heaved in a short breath and ran both her hands through her dark brown hair undoing the knots in them that she had failed to comb out in the morning.

"The problem is that Piper and Phoebe don't trust me." She cut Leo off before he could defend her sisters. "And I'm not saying that I expect them to believe me and listen to me on every occasion. But on the occasion that I did come clean, told them the truth, they pushed me away. Especially Phoebe." Paige averted her eyes from Leo, remembering the hurt she felt when she had confessed to Phoebe that she didn't trust Cole after the Power Brokers incident.

The pain in her sister's eyes was more hurtful than the words themselves and she realized then that she had lost something from both Phoebe and Piper when she had watched them walk away.

Shimmering hazel-brown eyes turned back to Leo, brewing with tears of pain, sadness and a yearning for forgiveness – forgiveness Paige felt she didn't deserve. And when that left, all that was left was anger.

"You know, I hear the truth sets you free… But I now know that's a load bull shit."

* * *

The rest of the day went by fast in a blur of foraying colors. Piper Halliwell arrived home just before dinner. She clambered the manor steps, hauling in both arms paper bags filled with groceries. Reaching the threshold, Piper managed to get the door open. A warm wind hit her face, drawing her away from the freezing cold outside as she stepped inside.

"Paige, Leo, I'm home."

Piper was still disappointed that Paige hadn't joined her for lunch, but decided to let this one go. It was clear that the 'Cole being evil' issue was taking its toll on her sister.

"Paige?" Piper grumbled a sigh and made her way into the kitchen, dumping the groceries on the table. She leaned heavily on the table with one hand, the other rubbing her forehead feeling the heat of her temper rising slightly.

"Paige…" she started quietly, but just loud enough to travel through the manor. Piper waited a moment, her eyes rolling a little as she waited for her sister to either orb in or walk through the door.

When the silence droned on into a minute she began to worry. Piper crept out into the hallway and shouted up the stairs one last time. She saw the shadow cast of a door being swung open and then, came Paige's voice, subdued in tiredness.

"What, Piper?" Paige came around and looked over the stair railing at her older sister.

Piper momentarily let silence settle between them. "Nothing…"

"Are there more groceries?" Paige asked, deciding to descend down the stairs. When she reached the bottom, Piper replied.

"Yeah… actually there are."

Paige quietly went out the front door and Piper slipped silently into the kitchen, starting to pack the groceries away. She heard Paige walk into the room as her back was turned.

"Is that the last of them?"

"Yep." Paige answered listlessly. She sat herself down on the kitchen chair and her hands began to wring together as an awkward tension began to build. Piper turned around to look at her baby sister in the eye, and she sighed.

"I missed you at lunch."

"Yeah… sorry." The youngest lowered her gaze and the guilt never died down after that.

* * *

Steel boots met the rough concrete of the city center. Shadows seemed to dance along the walls of the buildings that reached up to the stormy night sky that rumbled with a vengeful growl that rocked San Francisco. People scattered back to their homes as droplets fell from the heavens, and as he gazed up he could only snicker.

Heaven was his hell – literally.

His feet met the ground as he strode up the road, a coat hanging off of his shoulders and a hood shielding his face from the mortals around him. If only they knew what he was, what he had been through. They would see how pointless their puny little lives were.

He could still feel the lovely putrid smell of the Underworld clinging to his flesh, burning into it with the cries of the victims he had made suffer. He savored it all: the blood, the excitement, and the pain. He longed for it again.

And as he stood outside the big red mansion, he knew just where to find it.


	3. Chapter 3

Been long, hasn't it? I do apologize to everyone for not updating. It's just my life has been so hectic that my inspiration and creativity is usually used on other things during the course of the day that when night comes I'm just too tired to write. But, i have managed to whip up something quick for everyone. It's more a curving point in the fic, so yeah, enjoy! And don't forget to leave your wonderful reviews! Oh, and to **charmed-greek**, the title of the fic came from the last lines of chapter 1. Thanks everyone for reviewing!

**Chapter 3**

Phoebe Halliwell made her way up the stone steps that lead to the front porch of the place she once called home. In her heart the manor would always be her home, but now that she was living with Cole, she had become accustomed to calling the penthouse her 'home', if only for Cole's sake. Thinking of her husband brought Phoebe's mind back to the reason why she was here and that was she was going to have a chat with her little sister. Paige had a problem with Cole and so now; she had a problem with Phoebe.

Standing in front of the door, Phoebe quickly straightened her hair and opened the door swiftly. She peered in expectantly, eyes wandering down the hall.

"Piper?" Walking in and closing the door behind her, Phoebe noticed how silent the manor was, which was odd since it was the middle of the day. "Paige!" she shouted up toward the stairs.

Birds chirped from outside, the sound floated into the manor. Phoebe sighed and turned around and marched back toward the front door, but something out of the corner of her eye caused her to stop in her tracks. Demons, she thought. She whirled around and swung a roundhouse kick at the intruder.

"Ah!"

Phoebe's eyes widened and she withdrew her leg from a startled Paige, who thudded to the floor.

"Phoebe! What the hell!" The young whitelighter-witch's face wore an expression of pure shock and horror. She rubbed her head, a grimace wrinkling her features.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Paige. I thought you were a demon." The middle sister bent down and helped her younger sister up all the while giving off apologetic looks.

Paige brushed her pants off and nodded with a sarcastic remark. "Yeah, cause I look really evil, don't I?" She continued to brush off the dust on her clothes while looking away from her sister.

Being the most empathic sister, Phoebe sensed the negativity in her sister's voice, so she apologized again. "I'm sorry, Paige." Her face softened a little, as she tried to look Paige straight in the eye. "Are you ok?"

Paige gave a short wordless nod, crossing her arms over her chest as she rocked on her heels. She was definitely not in the mood to play games, or be the good sister to Phoebe. God knows she tried.

Casually, she asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I actually came to talk to you." Answered Phoebe.

There was a bout of silence and Paige stilled.

Her sister was here to talk to her… _about Cole_ – the husband that Phoebe was too blindly in love with.

"Oh." She barely murmured out. Paige could already see her future as short lived in terms of having sisters. She had come to understand that there was a line you just couldn't cross even if it was out of worry and love, and she knew she had crossed it.

"It's about Cole, Paige." Phoebe basically confirmed her thoughts. "I know you don't trust him…" her big sister's voice was calm and resolute.

All of Paige's other emotions drained out and now she only felt fear…fear for herself and for Phoebe, who she knew would go be going home to that demon husband at the end of all this. But how could she stop her sister, make her believe the words that she was saying? Would she make her see what she saw every night…? No, Paige thought. She would never let her sisters see that.

"We need to talk about this, Paige." Phoebe said as sternly as possible at a quieting Paige. Her baby sister seemed to be in a land of her own. "Paige?"

The half whitelighter blinked once and then looked directly at Phoebe. She grabbed her sister's hands in both hers and spoke, trying to sound as rational as possible. "Phoebe, please listen to me. I know you don't want to believe me, but Cole isn't who he says he is. He's different, Phoebe. He's evil."

"Evil, Paige?" the middle Charmed One paled and she pulled her hands away from Paige, whose face was crumbling with desperation.

"Phoebe-" Paige was sharply cut off by Phoebe's harsh voice.

"No, Paige, shut up! How can you say that!" Phoebe retorted back angrily, ignoring Paige's taken aback face. She took a moment to take a shuddering breath before continuing in a voice that trembled with anger and earnestness. "Cole is my husband and I love him. And for you to accuse him of being…" Phoebe struggled to get the words out in the fit of rage that was coursing through her body. "Of being evil… I just can't believe you'd say something like that. After all that we've done for you, brought you into our home, accepted you as our sister…" Her words trailed off as she began to hyperventilate. She glared at Paige, her little sister, and Phoebe only felt her own blood boil.

Paige inwardly recoiled back. Her heart was breaking, splintering at her big sister's words. She felt like she was being shredded to pieces and the pain was unbearable. She had only wanted to protect Phoebe from Cole, but now she had lost her sister forever.

"He saved you, Paige. He took you to the Underworld even when you had tried to kill him." Phoebe's tone was icy with something Paige could only describe as hate. "And as far as I'm concerned he's not the demon in all this…" Phoebe's eyes had glazed over with slight tears, but they weren't tears of sadness as she whispered. "You are."

------

There was stillness in the manor that one could describe as tranquility, but for the two remaining sisters, it spoke more words than anyone. Piper had come home that evening to a despondent baby sister who refused to move from her bedroom, or out of bed. Something had obviously happened because when she had called Phoebe, her sister would not speak of Paige or of their evident argument.

Things were falling apart in the manor and Piper could say she was unintentionally joining in.

For the ninth time that night, Piper hollered for her husband.

"Leo, please. I need to talk to you!"

She waited for the coalescing orbs to descend. After a minute, Piper finally gave up and sighed, dropping herself down onto her bed.

Leo and her had been having trouble conceiving and they were now into their fourth month of trying. They were both beginning to worry, but Leo was doing more than worry. He was starting to become anxious, constantly paranoid of never being able to have Melinda, the child Piper had seen when she went to the future. He was angry, and more often than none, his anger was directed at Piper. She was beginning to get worried.

"Leo! Come on, please!"

Nothing.

Piper got up and sauntered across her room and opened her bedroom door. She went into the hallway and headed up to the attic. She was going to scry for her husband, if that was even possible. Sitting herself down in front of the potion's table that held the crystal and map, Piper prepared herself for however long it would take to find her husband.

--------

The darkness of the night was still and peaceful. But for her, it meant entering a world where her inner demons could not be vanquished. They were strong, violent and they spoke her true fears.

Like a twig snapping, the youngest Halliwell awoke, trembling violently in the night. The perspiration clung to her flesh, reminding her of her night terror. Paige began to run her hands through her hair, untangling the knots and she shuddered, gasping a tight breath from her parched throat.

"Piper." Paige heard herself say unconsciously. She knew Piper would help her. She needed help. But at that moment, she knew help wasn't coming.

Phoebe hated her and soon, it was only a matter of time before Piper hated her too. The youngest felt another sob building in her throat and she bit her lip. Confusion – utter confusion rocked her soul. How was she going to save Phoebe and Piper from Cole?

Cole… was she even sure he was demon? Paige recalled her dream in a flash. It was so real. She could smell the flames coming off his body as he flamed in and out. His shrill voice still echoed in her mind. Cole was a demon. She believed that. There was no doubt in her mind that he was evil – very evil… And he had to be stopped. Somehow, she would find a way to defeat him.


End file.
